A Money Fair?

A Money Fair?
I just read that the Smithsonian is putting on a display to match no other, in the way of rare coins, sheets of $100,000 bills, coins tied to the first Americans and gold treasures from the era of the California Gold Rush. What gives?
I'm not sure, given the state of the economy,
ES0-004 that this is the time to roll out a "smack in the face" for the American public to remind them of the economic woes of the nation and in particular, their own money problems. Evidently, Kevin Brown, a manager in the marketing division of the U.S. Treasury Department's Bureau of Engraving and Printing held those bills up and said, "People like to see money". Well, granted, that's true, but the money most of us want to see is our own! That's kind of like holding up a bunch of lottery tickets-the promise is there, but the odds of you ever having it are somewhere around slim to none. A marketing manager? Really? Oh yeah, I forgot about all those freshly "minted" commemorative coins that the U.S. Treasury makes.
In fact,
TB0-120 the huge hall where the show is ongoing, through Saturday, is required to be staffed by armed uniformed personnel, federal agents, undercover police officers, security contractors and electronic surveillance equipment that probably have a price tag attached to it in the millions. Who is paying for this? Hmmm. Let me see. Smithsonian-government; Treasury Department-government; Government-we the people, at least that part of us that the government cares about-our taxes...again.
My goodness! Just America's first $20 gold coin is valued at $15 million and it's the last one of its kind. Just one single $100,000 bill is worth $1.6 million today and they have sheets of them on display for all of us to drool over. And to add insult to injury-they handed out tiny plastic bags of $150 bills, thoroughly shredded, to the kiddies. No, I'm not against the kids having the money; in fact I would never begrudge a child a souvenir like that, but chances are that as they reach adulthood, these children will wonder, "What was I thinking?" I received this little bag of shredded money at a time when my
VCP-410 BDad was unemployed and my Mom was working two jobs in order to keep food on the table and a roof over our head.
The show is actually a money-making affair for thousands of coin collectors, people who have thousands, or even millions, to spend on rare coins and a bit of history. The rest of us, we are busy making history as we live through this recession/depression and with any luck, some of us may have some rare coins in our penny jars that will be of interest to a collector. I'll start going through those pennies now.